On May 17, the EU Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee announced a series of proposals establishing new rigorous rules for the EU Commission’s regulation of the green bond market. The proposal aims to improve transparency and monitoring of the green bond market in an effort to reduce greenwashing.

SFA invites you to participate in our 2nd Annual Market Survey to continue tracking the integration of ESG (environmental, social and governance) considerations in structured finance issuance, investing and other activities as well as gathering market feedback regarding ESG disclosure practices including the SEC’s recently proposed rule on climate-related disclosure.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent climate disclosure proposal would expand the exposure of public companies to securities litigation. As a replacement to voluntary sustainability reports which can vary between different institutions and industries, companies would mandate to disclose in greater, standardized detail their climate risks and how they plan to address them. The recently proposed requirements are criticized for introducing risk of litigation related to foreseeable allegations of misstatements, even if unintentional.

On March 21, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new rules that would require companies to disclose climate risk-related information in its annual financial reports and registration statements. As expected, the proposed disclosures are similar to ones based on globally used disclosure frameworks, such as the Taskforce for Climate Financial Disclosures and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

On March 14, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a new report reviewing the progress of European banks on disclosing climate risks. The ECB concludes that while banks are making advancements on disclosing environment related risks, the level of transparency being provided is still insufficient.

We are seeking investor, issuer, trader, syndicate and banking feedback on the benchmark curve to be used to price and quote primary and secondary market structured finance bonds – as part of SFA’s ongoing market consensus building effort to replace the LIBOR swap curve currently used for much of the structured finance market

SFA’s latest Research Corner piece examines current use of existing ESG standards within RMBS, at both the corporate level as well as at the structured finance level. The report notes that SFA members Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently provide corporate level disclosure in line with SASB disclosures.

On February 2, the European Commission published final rules labelling some gas and nuclear-based energy investments as “green.” The proposal initially introduced last December will be included in the EU’s taxonomy and intends to provide a common set of definitions of what constitutes a “sustainable investment” in Europe.

Ford Motor Co. is planning to augment its current $30 billion investment in EVs by as much as $20 billion to convert their global production from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, according to Bloomberg News.

On January 24, the European Banking Authority (EBA) released a new set of mandatory templates and instructions that banks will have to follow to meet necessary disclosure requirements